The Future Combat Air System (FCAS) was launched in 2017 by President Emmanuel Macron and then-Chancellor Angela Merkel, and now also includes Spain. It is co-led by France\u2019s Dassault, Germany\u2019s Airbus Defence and Space and Spain\u2019s Indra, and is designed to deliver a next-generation fighter jet by 2040.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s currently bogged down in disagreements over the work share, which Paris and Berlin are trying to solve. Dassault wants to take the lead in making the FCAS New Generation Fighter (NGF), amid notoriously fraught relationships with Airbus.<\/p>\n
For Paris and Berlin, one of the crucial questions is whether the companies can meet the 2040 deadline, which is non-negotiable on the French side. Concerns shared by Dassault that the program\u2019s current organization could lead to delays must be \u201cheard,\u201d Lecornu said, while adding that the industrial work share is ultimately a \u201cpolitical decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another hurdle has been Germany\u2019s strict export policy. Berlin has previously refused to sell weapons to countries with dubious human rights records, while France sells armaments to Gulf countries such as Qatar.<\/p>\n
Pistorius, however, was keen to assuage France\u2019s concerns. \u201cOur partners in joint armaments projects must be able to rely on us \u2014 especially when it comes to exports,\u201d he said, adding that the European Commission should have no role whatsoever in arms exports.<\/p>\n
\u201cPhase 1B ends in December, and that\u2019s when decisions will have to be made. Once Phase 2 is validated, we\u2019ll build the aircraft together,\u201d Lecornu said, adding that the air forces and arms procurement agencies of the two countries will have to work together in the meantime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Future Combat Air System (FCAS) was launched in 2017 by President Emmanuel Macron and then-Chancellor Angela Merkel,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[22318,7668,6215,473,2000,109299,299,5187,36,1824,2597,12338,811,1116],"class_list":{"0":"post-294403","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-airplanes","9":"tag-boris-pistorius","10":"tag-cooperation","11":"tag-defense","12":"tag-eu","13":"tag-eu-common-security-and-defence-policy","14":"tag-europe","15":"tag-european","16":"tag-france","17":"tag-germany","18":"tag-military","19":"tag-sebastien-lecornu","20":"tag-security","21":"tag-weapons"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114921961325927418","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}